THE USE OF WHATSAPP MESSENGER DIALOGUE JOURNAL AND ITS EFFECT ONSTUDENTS IN WRITING RECOUNT TEXT

Abstract

Social media is one of the most used communication methods of today’s world. It cannot be denied, social media also gives a huge influence on students’ lifestyle. WhatsApp Messenger, for example, has become popular as a learning tool in many institutions since many students nowadays have this application on their own smartphone. WhatsApp is a Smartphone application for instant messaging. These days, it is difficult to engage students’ interest in learning English subject, especially in writing. Therefore, WhatsApp can be one of the inventive teaching medium to attract them writing by using a fun method namely dialogue journal. The goal of the study was to determine the effect of using WhatsApp Messenger dialogue journal as one of mobile learning technique to improve students' writing skills in writing recount text. Seventy-two 10th-grade students at SMA CerdasMurniTembung participated in this study, chosen from class X MIA I and X MIA II. They were divided into experimental and controlled class. The experimental class (X MIA I) received dialogue journal treatment through WhatsApp application in addition to classroom recount text writing instruction; whereasthe controlled class (X MIA II) received only the recount text writing instruction. All students were pre and post-tested on recount text writing skills. Results revealed that the classes scored about equally on the pre-test, but the experimental class scored significantly higher on the post-test. It meant that dialogue journal writing through WhatsApphad a significant positive effect on students’ knowledge of English language and enhanced their confidence in writing. The writer suggested the method helped improve students’ writing skills in writing recount text.